ONE SHOT PRODUCTIONS
A Day in the Life of a Comic Book

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Being an Indie Publisher ain't easy.
It's not a way to get rich, and it's really not even a way to break even. Maybe everyone has a different reason why they would start publishing comics independently, but my reason is pretty simple. I just have to. I drew my first comic book on notebook paper with colored pencils in 1987 when I was 10 years old. And it sucked. Thankfully, my comics improved (slowly) over the following 10 or so years. I started publishing my comics in 2001. I love writing comics, and I'm getting more and more into developing my style of art as well.

Indie publishers have to balance all the same facets of life as anyone else (day job, chores, personal life, etc) but we also have to find the time to squeeze in all the duties of publishing that are usually done by a TEAM of paid comic professionals (writing, drawing, lettering, web design, promoting, etc). Sometimes you just want to relax. Sometimes you do that a little more often than you should. Sometimes a LOT more.

So on May 16, 2007, I decided to make a stand. I decided to try to do SOMETHING comic related EVERY DAY. I do have some rules, which are pretty loose and apt to change. I started this web log on July 1st 2007, and so far I HAVE done something for my comics every day. I don't know how long it can last, but I'm going to try.

I've decided to chronicle my daily comic tasks right here for our readers, to give them a peek into the creative steps and behind-the-scenes processes that bring these stories to the page. Enjoy :)
-Jay W. Davis, One Shot Productions

Previous Blogs: [Jul-Dec 2007] - [Jan-Jun 2008] - [Jul-Dec 2008] - [Jan-Jun 2009] - [Jul-Dec 2009] -------------------

MARCH 9, 2010
On page one, I started adding flat colors to the background. First, I used the sky color to cover the whole page, then added the sand color in the appropriate areas. Once this was done, I tweaked the lightness and saturation of the sky color to make it a more pale tone. Although I pulled the original color from actual photos from the Bahamas, real-life colors don't always work great on the page. By tweaking it, I arrived at the a color that looks more realistic than the real-life color (as strange as that may be). I continued adding these sky and sands colors on pages two and three. 

MARCH 8, 2010
I colored Stoic's skin, pants & hair on pages eleven and twelve. I lifted a light green color from the cover of the original Stoic print comic, and used that light green to color the beads that hang in front of his ears. I added this light green bead color to all twelve pages. Page eleven needed some minor cleanup on the people layer. I also updated the "Coming Soon" web page to reflect the release dates for this Stoic webcomic and the next chapter of Shadowlord. I also put the "Mark of the Jinn" banner up with a note that volume two is currently in production. Whoops, I guess I didn't update the "Home & News" page yet this month, so I did today :)

MARCH 7, 2010
More progress on coloring Stoic's skin, pants & hair. I colored these areas on pages five through ten. Also, I did further layer separation on page nine, making an extreme foreground layer for panels 3 & 4. Pages nine and ten both needed a little further clean up, smoothing out Stoic's outline.

MARCH 6, 2010
I added colors to Stoic's skin, pants & hair on page four of "Stoic Sands."

MARCH 5, 2010
I added Stoic's skin color on pages two and three of the "Stoic Sands" webcomic. I also picked a base color for his hair & pants. It's a dark blue, which works well for solid black areas. That way, I can add shading to make his hair look black, but the highlight areas have a little color instead of being gray. I added this dark blue to his hair and pants on the first three pages.

MARCH 4, 2010
I went back to the "Stoic Sands" webcomic, and started the coloring process. First, I chose a color for Stoic's skin tone. Then, I colored Stoic in all 4 panels of the first page.

MARCH 3, 2010
I finished the pencils on page fifty of the Shadowlord webseries. Panels 3 and 4 will reuse some of the elements from page forty seven, so they didn't require any backgrounds. Panel 5 is a close shot of Shadowlord smiling, and I couldn't get it right for a long time. For some reason, everything looked okay except the eyes. I tried over and over, and ended up just erasing the whole panel and starting over. I finally got a usuable panel drawn, but there are lots of erasure streaks around the final art.

MARCH 2, 2010
I penciled and shaded the first two panels of page fifty of the Shadowlord webseries. It's kinda surreal for me. For a long time, the old 2002 comic was the only part I had shared of Shadowlord's journey. Now, his story has grown so much and he's nearly at a point where he can activate his fiery powers at will. With page fifty, I'm tying up that part of his growth to prepare him for his next step, which will involve the introduction of a new character who will share the spotlight with Shadowlord in his series :)

MARCH 1, 2010
It's been THIRTY TWO months, and I've still done something every single day :) First thing this morning, I uploaded the new "Shadowlord: Barkstripper" chapter to the site, along with the monster's character profile. This evening, I built some images that compare my original thumbnail sketches to the finished artwork for this chapter (just as I did for the previous chapter). Like last time, I've also included some notes about each page. Once that was done, I updated the page that contains these images and uploaded it to the site.

FEBRUARY 28, 2010
I finished the pencil work on page forty nine of the Shadowlord webseries. Both panels involved angles that were a bit tricky. Panel 4 shows Shadowlord looking up into the sky, but it's from a bird's-eye-view looking down. This means I had to use the "foreshortening" technique, to obscure parts of Shadowlord that are hidden from the parts closer to the "camera." I worked from my thumbnail layout sketch, and this one turned out really nice. Panel 5 was harder. It's a shot of Shadowlord's hand as he's reaching up. Hands are tricky anyway to a novice artist like me, so I took a picture of my hand (using a mirror to get the angle I wanted). Once I had a digital photo, I brought it up on my computer monitor and loosely traced it onto the paper. Once I had this loose outline, I used my swab tools to add shadows to the hand, then made the outlines a bit darker. That one turned out nicely too :) You know, my art still needs a ton of improvement, but the stuff on this page shows how far my art has improved since the original 2002 Shadowlord comic. It's nice to see how my art continues to grow :)

FEBRUARY 27, 2010
I penciled and shaded panel 3 of page forty nine (Shadowlord). This is the largest panel on the page, and is a close shot of Shadowlord's big old forehead. On a separate sheet, I did some quick doodles, which will probably be superimposed over the main art during the digital phase. In fact, I plan to make this panel look like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of the pieces missing (representing Shadowlord's missing memories). The doodles don't serve much of a purpose, except to help add more visual interest to the panel. Like I said before, I'm doing some things differently with this chapter to make it stand apart from the art direction of previous chapters.

FEBRUARY 26, 2010
Pencilwork continues on the next chapter of Shadowlord. I penciled and shaded the first two panels of page forty nine. Wow... it's just now sinking in how many full color pages I've done for this series :) The panels I worked on tonight are both wide, but not tall. The first one shows Shadowlord's clenched fist at his side, the second shows an extreme close up of his angry eyes.

FEBRUARY 25, 2010
I drew kind of a crazy panel today. Panel 5 on page forty eight (Shadowlord webseries), shows an x-ray view of Shadowlord's head. I looked up a few pics on the internet for visual reference first, but it was still pretty tricky. It looked much better after I did some blended pencil shading. Still, I'm not really sure how well this panel will turn out once I color it to look like an actual x-ray. I'll hang on to those reference pics I found, but I'm not feeling very optimistic about it. Is it necessary to even show an x-ray view in this panel? Nah. So why do it? Really, I just wanted to expand my horizons a bit with this chapter. It could end up looking very much like the "Deficiency" chapter earlier in the series. Instead, I wanted to make some changes to how I'm handling the visuals of the series. Especially since this short chapter closes out the first 50-page run of the character. I want to establish that this series won't necessarily look the same from one chapter to the next.

FEBRUARY 24, 2010
I penciled and shaded two more panels today on page forty eight (Shadowlord webseries). Panel 3 is a close up of Shadowlord's hands touching his stomach (as he breathes out). Panel 4 is a medium shot, as Shadowlord continues to flex his abdomen as he exhales.

FEBRUARY 23, 2010
Another simple, single panel. I penciled and shaded panel 2 of page forty eight (Shadowlord webseries). This one is an extreme close up of Shadowlord with his eyes closed. The art looks pretty peaceful, which is just what I was going for :)

FEBRUARY 22, 2010
I penciled and shaded the first panel of page forty eight (Shadowlord webseries). It's a wide panel, but not so tall. It simply shows our hero looking over his shoulder at Calico, who is sleeping in the background.

FEBRUARY 21, 2010
I finished penciling the rest of page forty seven (Shadowlord webseries). Panel 3 gave me a little trouble, but worked out after some erasing. At first, panel 4 seemed a little too challenging too. After some blended shading, though, it came together nicely. After that, panel 5 was a breeze.

FEBRUARY 20, 2010
I started the process of selecting colors to the Stoic webcomic, using photo reference from the bahamas (where the story takes place). I really want the sky and waters to look as accurate as possible. I selected a couple different sky hues, and about five different authentic water hues. I'm still not feeling great, and I decided that I don't want to make these color choices yet (after all, they'll affect twelve total pages). At first I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on instead. Finally, I decided to start drawing another chapter of Shadowlord. This time, it will only be a four page chapter (unlike the 7 or 9 page ones on that series lately). I started on the first page of the chapter, which will be page forty seven in the series. I only penciled the first two panels. These two wide panels actually show the same thing, but the first is focused on a foreground element, and the other on a midground element. My approach was to draw only the background trees in the first panel. In the second panel, I drew the foreground and midground elements. In digital, I'll use all the art together in both panels.

FEBRUARY 19, 2010
I'm feeling better, but still not up to doing anything too involved. I made html pages for chapters two, three, and five of the next "Mark of the Jinn" story. These pages basically contain the script for its particular chapter. Chapter four was left out because I intend to draw that one myself and won't need to access the script online. Also tonight, I scanned & trimmed the image of the little primitive girl and added her to the MotJ reference art page.

FEBRUARY 18, 2010
Still sick :( I made the html pages for the upcoming Stoic webcomic, even though I won't need them for another month and a half. It was the most mundane, non-creative, no-brainpower thing I could think to do today.

FEBRUARY 17, 2010
Sick today :( Worst of all, I've got a headache that feels like my skull is squeezing my brain. I didn't want to do any digital work, because staring at a computer screen would only aggravate my headache. I'd love to get some writing done, but there's no way I could concentrate with my head feeling like this. I could start drawing the next Shadowlord webcomic since it's already scripted, but how good would that turn out today? Finally I thought of something I could do for comics today. There's a little girl character in the next "Mark of the Jinn" story, which I have not drawn yet. She's the only one not added to my MotJ reference art page yet. So that's what I drew. Thankfully, I already knew what she should look like so I didn't have to do much thinking :) I drew her with pencil, then added inked her outline and some detail. It's not a mind-blowing design concept, but it turned out really good.

FEBRUARY 16, 2010
There were hardly any bubbles or splashes on pages nine through twelve (Stoic webcomic), so I moved through them pretty quickly. There were splashes of blood, but they were much easier to deal with than the light water splashes of the other pages. I resized a couple of pages to show more of the original art, but that didn't take much time at all. I probably worked about a half hour to finish these four pages, as opposed to a couple of hours yesterday and a couple more the day before.

FEBRUARY 15, 2010
The layer separations continue. I did pages five through eight of the Stoic story.  It seems like every panel either has flying drops of splashing water, or rising bubbles in the underwater shots. Cutting around a bunch of tiny bubbles on every page is getting tedious! At least I'm two-thirds of the way through In some ways, this art is even better than some of the Shadowlord stuff I've been working on (which I drew after this Stoic story). I think it's because the action is much more exaggerated here, with lots of leaping and stuff that we don't see in the Shadowlord series yet.

FEBRUARY 14, 2010
I started doing the layer separations for the Stoic 2-parter. I separated the people layer from the background on the first four pages. On some pages, I resized the art within the first or last panel (shrinking them to fit in more of the original art). Some pages required additional layers, like the panel 1 on page three. That panel has layers for Stoic, the foreground wall, the midground trees, and the far background. Page two may have been the most complicated. It has a horizontal layout, which I hardly ever use. That wasn't an issue though. The thing about that page is all the streaks and blobs of falling sand that are part of the people layer.

FEBRUARY 13, 2010
I did a little more work on the upcoming Stoic 2-part webcomic. I created the "frames" layer (gutters & panel borders) for all twelve pages. On page twelve, I moved the last three panels around a bit. In the original art, there was a wide panel at the bottom, and two side by side panels just above that. By swapping these around, the story ends on a close up of Stoic's face.

FEBRUARY 12, 2010
I scripted the Barkstripper origin story. It turned out to be five pages. Most of it has to do with two characters, one of whom becomes the creature. I could have let the story drag on for another page, I decided instead to quicken the pace and make it a bit shorter. Though it ends on a tense note, we don't actually see what the creature does to its first victim. At first, I was gonna go for the gore, but I changed my mind. I love bloody, gory action scenes in my comics, but I don't really like to put that stuff on the website (since it's accessible to people of all ages). Besides, it's pretty obvious what's about to happen, and I think the reader will get that image in their head all the same. Once I finished the script, I copied it over to the Barkstripper assignment page for "drawthiscomic.com." I won't post this new assignment, though, until the Barkstripper makes his debut in the new Shadowlord chapter next month.

FEBRUARY 11, 2010
I finished the "Mark of the Jinn" visual reference page for artists. I fixed up a number of my sketches, as well as some sketches by Curtis Rhodes. I also included some of the real-life photos I picked up from the web, to help artists understand some of the design elements. Each of the four main characters got their own mini-page, containing various art from the first story as well as a short description of the character's personality / demeanor. With all that finished, I checked my email. Artist D.C. White (of MotJ:Lost, ch. 3), said he could work on chapter one of the new volume. I'm truly honored to work with artists of such caliber :)

FEBRUARY 10, 2010
It's time to get crackin' on the second story arc of "Mark of the Jinn." Tonight, I created an exclusive web page for use only by Mark of the Jinn artists. This way, I can present all the visual reference material in one place. Instead of emailing multiple art pics to an artist, I can just email them the link to the MotJ reference page. This page will be hosted on my "drawthiscomic.com" site, but won't be accessible to visitors like the other assignments. First, I sketched out a design on paper so I'd know what exactly I wanted to include. Then, I made the html page according to that design. After that, I made two of the reference pics. I took sketches I drew some time ago, added some text to help get the point across, and cropped off unnecessary portions. I also surfed the net for photos of a couple specific types of fruit which will appear in some scenes of the new story. There's still more to be done though :) Oh, and I emailed the artist chosen for chapter one, to see if he's ready to get started!

FEBRUARY 9, 2010
You know that Stoic story I drew waaaay back last fall? I'm finally close to doing something with it! I intend to chop that twelve page story in half, and present it as two webcomic updates. Not next month, but for the two after that. Tonight, I started the earliest part of the prep work. I converted each page from a simple "jpg" to a "tif" file (which can handle layers). I convert the color scans to grayscale, eliminating any of the weird little color pixels that show up from scanning in color. Then, I converted it back to RGB (color) since I intend to add colors later. So why don't I just scan in black & white? Ugh. It's just how I do it, and I don't have a good reason why :) I reduced the size of the images by 60%, bringing them much closer to the actual print size. I then add a black border around the whole page, leaving only a 6 x 9.5" area visible (this is the "live area," the part that shows in print or in the webcomic). By doing this, I can keep the focus of my work with this live area, while still leaving a little extra art around in case I have to move or resize a panel. It didn't take very long to do all this to all twelve pages. I'm not ready to go any further on that project tonight. Also, I typed up the Barkstripper origin from the notebook manuscript I wrote a few days ago.

FEBRUARY 8, 2010
I created the html pages for the "Barkstripper" chapter of Shadowlord. I also wrote a profile for the creature, and updated the character profile page to include the monster (and the Shadowlord title page).

FEBRUARY 7, 2010
Ah... more writing tonight. It feels good to do something that doesn't involve graphics for a change :) I wrote the first section of a story involving an unpublished character I created last Spring (the one with the horse). I've recently re-thought the core relationship between the horse and rider, and have come up with one I think will be relatable and more interesting. Plus, this new twist makes for a great narrative hook when revealed in the section I wrote tonight :)

FEBRUARY 6, 2010
I wrote a new draft of the Barkstripper monster's origin. The main event is the same, but I wrote the dialogue from scratch. I tried to keep it short (though not sweet), and escalate the emotions quickly. There is a lot of repetition in what one character says, but he's in an emergency situation so I think it's realistic. What I wrote covered three pages of notebook paper. It's still in short story form, but will eventually be scripted for use on "drawthiscomic.com".

FEBRUARY 5, 2010
From my recent Shadowlord art, I created three profile pictures of the "Barkstripper" monster. I also made a vertical banner for drawthiscomic.com featuring the monster, since I intend to post his origin story there as a drawing assignment. I prepped about nine images of the monster for use with that site. Prep work included cropping & resizing images, adding a copyright blurb, and sometimes adding a note onto the image. I started a web page for the origin story, but I haven't added the script yet. I know I've written the origin already, but I don't know if I've converted it into a script. It doesn't matter. I'll likely write it again from memory. For now, the web page only contains images and a summary of the story. I won't actually post it on the other site until it's complete.

FEBRUARY 4, 2010
Okay, I finally did the sound effects for pages forty two through forty six (Shadowlord webseries). I know I've gone on a tirade about my dislike for sound effects, but they were quite necessary here. With a monster that doesn't speak, this chapter is really inspired by the old slasher / horror movies I saw as a kid. As I try to build tension in this story, we get such SFX gems as "SKRIIIIITCH" and "WHUMP" and "KER-RACK." I have to admit that these scenes would be less effective without the sound effects, but I'm going to chalk that up to the type of genre this chapter employs. As a rule, I still dislike sound effects :) Afterward, I flattened each page (i.e., combined multiple layers into a single layer), saved them as "jpg" format images, and resized them for use on the web. I also added the copyright blurb to each of the nine pages. So that wraps up the last of my digital work on this chapter. Good thing too, because I've got a few new projects bubbling up in my brain that I want to get started on!

FEBRUARY 3, 2010
Tonight, I did all the spoken and narrative lettering on pages forty two through forty six (Shadowlord webseries). I'm still avoiding the sound effects, so I can do them all in one sweep :)

FEBRUARY 2, 2010
After working at my day job, I rushed home, picked up my awesome wife, then headed to the FedEx Forum to watch WWE Smackdown with the tickets she won today. I didn't get home until 11pm, and immediately went to work on lettering more Shadowlord. I didn't get much done. Since I typed all the text yesterday, I used my time this evening to create the word balloons for the the first four pages (not counting sound effects, which I will deal with separately). Some panels, you make the oval and a tail, and it works great on the first try. Other times, I make oval after oval trying to get the right fit for the words, or I just can't get the tail to be the right proportion to the balloon. At least the narration goes in a simple rectangle (although it can be hard to make the sentences fit with no awkward spaces). These four pages went pretty smoothly. I'd prefer to get more done tonight, but I'm too tired to do a good job on any more pages.

FEBRUARY 1, 2010
THIRTY ONE months so far, and I'm still going :) First thing this morning, I uploaded the new Shadowlord webcomic. I updated the "Home & News" page to reflect the new addition. I updated the "Coming Soon" page to show the next chapter due in March. I began lettering on the monster chapter of Shadowlord tonight. Many times, I spend so much time on the art (doing clean-up, separations, shading, coloring, etc), that I don't really remember what the characters or narration says. So tonight, I read the script as I'm lettering, and I think "hey, this is pretty good." There's still some changes and edits to do, but I'm happy with the pacing and most of the word choices.

JANUARY 31, 2010
I shaded the people layer for page forty six, which means I'm finished with the digital shading for this monster chapter of the Shadowlord webseries. Most of the page was routine, but there's a view in panel 3 of the old house with light coming from inside. This was one of those trial & error processes to get to the final version. I thought I could make some kind of glowing sphere inside the represent the light source, but that never looked right. Instead, I just lit up the door and windows with a bright yellow, and some orange glow around it. It looks better than what I pictured. Unlike the other pages, this one has a blue tone over the whole page (instead of orange). This is because the characters are back outside, and this time they don't carry a light source. I like how this change in hue adds a sort of punctuation to the story.
Also today, I did a lot of prep work to tomorrow's webcomic ready to be uploaded to the site. It's the chapter titled "Fishy." After building the html pages to hold each page of artwork, I made an extra html page with some bonus content. On this bonus page, I share a side by side comparison of the finished art next to the original thumbnail sketch. I made an image for each showing the thumbnail sketch, final art, and some notes about the page.

JANUARY 30, 2010
All four panels of page forty five contain fire, which altered to match the previous pages. Panels 2, 3 & 4 each touch an edge, and needed the glow effect trimmed. Everything else on the page was pretty routine. In panel 2, I added a little more shading to the monster's skin texture since we see it close up. Also tonight, I scanned a number of pages including thumbnail sketches of the Shadowlord webseries and reference drawings for the next "Mark of the Jinn" story.

JANUARY 29, 2010
Page forty four (Shadowlord webseries) took a little longer than some pages. It's only six panels (which is pretty standard), but there are a lot of action shots. In panels 1 & 2 things are getting torn apart. There's hitting & stabbing in a couple of panels, and there's blood spilling in panel 4. I particularly like panels 4 & 5 on this page. I'm pleased with how this chapter looks, but I'm glad it's nearing an end :)

JANUARY 28, 2010
I did the foreground shading of page forty three (Shadowlord webseries). This page had another situation where the fire glow effect was overlapping the edge of the panel (like yesterday). But this time I was able to fix it quickly, using the same technique as yesterday. Otherwise, this was a rather simple page. This is the page that has a big reveal shot of the monster, and I decided not to shade him too much. As a reader, I'd want a clear view of what the heck Shadowlord is running from, so that's what I delivered. That's one of the things that bugged me about the movie "Cloverleaf." You see pieces of the monster the whole time or you see the whole thing from too close or to far away. I didn't want to be guilty of the same thing :)

JANUARY 27, 2010
Page forty two (Shadowlord webseries) was actually little more complicated than the other pages in this chapter The flame in panel 3 presented a problem because it touches the edges of the frame. The problem came when I added the glow effect eminating from the flame. This caused the glow to extend into the panels below and beside it. I fixed it, though I did so in a really complicated way involving a number of steps by making the flame and its glow on two separate layers. I'm sure there was an easier way, but I don't know what it is :) The other complicating factor here is the broken & flying debris in panel 4. There are multiple layers working in that panel (background, monster arm, "swoosh" lines, and the debris). It wasn't really a challenging layer, just time consuming. And for some reason, the people layer and its color layer always seemed to have little places that didn't sync up (that is, little white or grey flecks where the color didn't reach). Eventually, I combined these into a single layer, and just trimmed those crappy little nuisances.

JANUARY 26, 2010
I finished all the people / foreground shading on pages forty and forty one of the Shadowlord webseries. I altered the fire to match the previous two pages, and added that slight orange hue enitrely over both pages.

JANUARY 25, 2010
Finished the shading on page thirty nine. Panels 2 & 4 were completely done already (because I previously included them as backgrounds). I shaded Shadowlord in panels 1, 3 & 5. I changed the fire layers in 1 & 5 to match what I did with the page from yesterday. In panel 3, I used a thin shading tool to add some texture to Shadowlord's hair, since it's such a close-up shot.

JANUARY 24, 2010
I finished the rest of page thirty eight (Shadowlord webseries). I shaded the few foreground elements (Shadowlord, firewood, & smoke), which didn't take long. I spent a lot of time tweaking the fire, though. I just didn't like the way it looked. I added a soft orange glow around the flame. I also erased the harsh pencil outline, which helped soften its look. Then I added a soft orangy layer over the entire page, to simulate the hue cast by firelight (as opposed to sunlight).

JANUARY 23, 2010
Page forty six (Shadowlord webseries) really didn't have much background. I added the forest floor / dirt texture to panels 1 & 3. I heavily darkened both these panels, since it's outdoors & at night. In panel 3, I added a glow coming from inside the house. I blacked out the treeline in panel 3, only showing the three closest trees in color. Above the treeline, I added a dim glow as if the sun is just about to rise. I went ahead and shaded the trees in panel 1, even though they're part of my foreground layer. I left the foreground trees on the rest of the page for another time.

JANUARY 22, 2010
Another routine coloring of backgrounds, this time for page forty five (Shadowlord webseries). This page focuses on action, so there wasn't much detail in the backgrounds to start with. I made the first panel very dark on the outer edges to contrast with the bright light source in the center. The second panel has almost no background. The other two panels are the last of the interior shots in this chapter, I am happy to say. I've learned a lot from shading this chapter, but I wouldn't want to do chapters this dark all the time :)

JANUARY 21, 2010
Page forty four of the Shadowlord webseries. was pretty routine. I shaded the backgrounds, and ther wasn't anything particularly tricky. Again, the light source (a torch) was coming from somehwere on the floor, but it didn't throw me off.

JANUARY 20, 2010
Page forty three of the Shadowlord webseries got the shading treatment tonight. This page wasn't too tricky. The thing about these indoor pages is that the only light source is the torch that Shadowlord holds. It's quite different from shading when there's a universal light source like the sun or an overhead lightbulb. The rooms are darker than most of the other pages I've worked on, and the characters cast harsh shadows on the walls. It's not hard really, but I have to pay attention and be sure I know where the torch is (even if it's somewhere off-panel). In panel 4, for instance, the torch is somewhere on the floor so the light comes from the bottom of the panel. I'm still just working on backgrounds, and haven't started shading Shadowlord or the monster yet. Normally, I shade the characters first, but I'm doing backgrounds first this time to get all the lighting right (since this lighting is so different from my usual work).

JANUARY 19, 2010
I shaded all the backgrounds of page forty two (Shadowlord webseries). Panel 1 was a snap since there's nothing but some dirt and a light source :) The other four panels were pretty routine, and turned out well. On panel 4, there is a lot of broken splinters of wood flying around, so I shaded those too.

JANUARY 18, 2010
The backgrounds on pages forty and forty one got some attention today (Shadowlord webseries). On forty, I added the dirt layer to panel 2, and darkened almost all of it except for an oval of light created by the torch. Panels 3 through 7 take up the bottom half of that page, and are all inside the old barn. Shading this was a learning experience. I haven't had to deal with this level of shading on a color webcomic before. There are horizontal and angled lines along all the background walls. I continued learning as I shaded the backgrounds on page forty one, because two panels include the floor as well. With the torch laying on the dirt floor, I rendered a light source effect behind the flame. This helped give me an idea of the radius of bright light surrounding the torch. The shaded in wide arcs further out from the light, getting darker along the way. I was a bit nervous about working on this chapter, but so far it's shaping up just how I wanted :)

JANUARY 17, 2010
I worked a little on page thirty nine of the Shadowlord webseries. I darkened the skinny little trees in panels 1 & 2. In panels 3 & 4, the monster is scraping his claws on a tree trunk. I heavily shaded the tree and the monster in each of these panels. Looking at them now, they look really  dark. It was no accident though. The scene takes place in the woods at night, so I really want all the outdoor panels to be super dark.

JANUARY 16, 2010
I worked on the backgrounds on page thirty nine (Shadowlord webseries). I added the dirt texture to the first and last panels, and shaded them. I heavily shaded the trees in panels 1, 2 & 4. I want this whole chapter to be darkly lit, so I'm using a lot more digital shading than usual.

JANUARY 15, 2010
I added flat colors to almost all the remaining background elements on pages thirty nine through forty six (Shadowlord webseries). This included a dirt color for the floor inside the old house and changing the color of the wooden door (from gray to a raw wood color). In all the indoor panels, I blacked out the empty windows and open doors since it's night (and there is no light source outside).

JANUARY 14, 2010
More colors added to pages thirty nine through forty six (Shadowlord webseries). On page thirty nine, there was a tree in the extreme foreground, and a number of trees in the middle and background areas. I colored these trees, which weren't included on the main foreground layer that I've already worked on. On pages forty through forty five, I added a dull gray color to the walls inside the old barn. Pages forty two and forty three show a wooden ladder in the background, which I also colored. I left the floor area blank on these pages (for now). There's a makeshift door on some of these pages, which I colored the same as the wooden walls. I expect, though, to change the color of the door at a later time.

JANUARY 13, 2010
This monster chapter of the Shadowlord webseries is taking forever! Tonight, I added a red color over the flames on seven pages (out of nine) for this chapter. Most were small flames from far away, with a few close-up exceptions. Once the red color was in place, I used a tool to airbrush in a lighter yellow hue to prevent the fire from looking flat. It worked out well. I also added a gray tone to the smoke on several pages, since I skipped that (along with the fire) when coloring other stuff.

JANUARY 12, 2010
I added the colors on page forty six of the Shadowlord webseries, the last page of that particular chapter. I also added color to the monster on five other pages, wherever he appeared. To pick the color to use on the monster, I started with a normal peach-like fleshtone. I colored the panel that shows the best view of the monster, then altered the color saturation until it looked duller and more gray. Once I had this color, I saved it on my color palette and colored the other panels involving the monster.

JANUARY 11, 2010
I did cleanup on pages forty four and forty five (Shadowlord webseries). I added color to the people layer / foreground elements, except for the monster and flames again. These pages contain action, which makes them a bit more complicated to color (because many objects touch or overlap). Also today, I got an email from artist Curtis Rhodes containing a couple of sketches. Curtis is helping me prepare for the next "Mark of the Jinn" story by drawing sketches of the new characters from my designs. These sketches will be provided to the other artists involved to provide a consistent look for these characters. No surprise, his sketches looked great :)

JANUARY 10, 2010
More digital cleanup today. I worked on pages forty one through forty three (Shadowlord webseries). I also added color to the foreground elements on these pages, except for the monster and the torch flames.

JANUARY 9, 2010
I did digital cleanup on pages thiry nine and forty (Shadowlord webseries). I added most of the colors to the people layer of those pages and the one before. Normally, I like to add all the colors to that layer before moving on. This time, the monster (or some of it) is shown on page thirty eight, and I haven't picked a color for it yet. It'll have a flesh tone like a corpse, I'm just not ready to zero in on it just yet. So instead, I colored Shadowlord on those three pages, and trees and stuff that appeared in the foreground layer, too. Not the fire though, I'll color the campfire and torches all at one time.

JANUARY 8, 2010
First, I tinkered with the new title logo from a couple days ago. The only change I kept was to stretch the letters to make them taller. Afterward, I moved on to the Shadowlord webseries. I resized the raw art of pages thirty eight through forty six, making them smaller than the giant 11x17" original art. I also built the "frames" layer of each of these nine pages, creating the panel borders and gutters between panels. I did a little digital cleanup & erasing on page thirty eight, too.

JANUARY 7, 2010
To my surprise, I lettered all of the next chapter of the Shadowlord webseries (pages thirty one through thirty seven). This was only a surprise because I haven't looked at the script in some time. There was almost no text on the first page, and the rest of the pages had only a modest amount. With that done, I resized and reformatted the images to be internet-ready. I also added the copyright info into each image. Then I lifted images from a few pages to add to the character profiles section. This inculdes that great shot of "Dark Warrior" from page thirty seven, and made that his selection thumb too. I pulled one image of Shadowlord and one of Calico for their respective profiles (though I didn't change their selection thumbs). Speaking of selection thumbs, I used a really nice shot of the fish on page thirty one as the thumbnail image for this chapter (for use on the Shadowlord title and webcomic pages). I stared at the screen for a long time as I tried to finally conjure a name for this important, yet action-less chapter. I nearly named it "Fish Story," referring to the hard-to-believe information Shadowlord learns at the end of the chapter. But it didn't quite stick. Ultimately, I simply named this chapter "Fishy." It's only one week into this month, and I've already finished next month's webcomic! This is a relief, as I was worried about tackling the following chapter which is nine pages. Wait... Fish? Tackle? Sorry :)

JANUARY 6, 2010
For over an hour, I browsed and downloaded free fonts from the internet. I plan to create a logo soon for the robot print comic I'm publishing this year. Before I get started, I need a suitable font. I downloaded about fifteen different ones, then typed the comic's title in each font so I could compare them next to each other. I narrowed the choices down to one, but I didn't like the way two of the letters looked. I altered the "A" and the "J" to get them to look how I wanted. After that, I added stars and stripes to the logo to make it more patriotic (which relates to the content of the book). That was a slow process, as I pieced the stripes together one or two letters at a time. I also added some circuitry to part of the logo (which also relates to the content of the book). I'm not quite finished with the logo yet, but I've made a lot of progress tonight :)

JANUARY 5, 2010
I was able to color the backgrounds of pages thirty six and thirty seven of the Shadowlord webseries. These pages weren't so tough. Thirty six was particularly easy, because there were a lot of shots where the foreground elements take up most of the panels. There's not much room for backgrounds, and I blurred what little background showed in each panel (to focus on the foreground elements). Thirty seven had a wide panel that had a lot of trees in the background, as well as plenty of dirt texture. The rest of that page was like the previous one, and I blurred most of that, too. The last panel on page thirty seven is one of my favorites of this series, as it shows a really diabolical grin on the face of the "Dark Warrior" character. I definitely plan on adding that to his character profile. I also added a finishing touch to the people layer in that panel, by darkening the perimeter of his eyeballs :)

JANUARY 4, 2010
The backgrounds of page thirty five got colors today. This one was a bit tedious, because there is a lot of background space in all three panels. There are trees and some greenery in each, as well as some ground areas. I still use the "dirt texture" I made for the first Shadowlord webcomic, but it has to be skewed and tweaked so it looks like it belongs in each panel. I had some digitally-drawn trees to go in front of the old barn in panel 3, but I decided to leave them out from the final version.

JANUARY 3, 2010
I colored the backgrounds of pages thirty three and thirty four (Shadowlord webseries). These were a bit easier to get through, and didn't have as much interaction with the people layer.

JANUARY 2, 2010
I did all the background colors on page thirty two for the Shadowlord webseries. This page was a bit complicated. Panels 3, 4 & 5 are all from the same POV as we watch Shadowlord throw a temper tantrum. Keeping panels consistent can be a bit tricky, especially with trees and water as part of the scenery. Thankfully, I learned some techniques yesterday that saved me a little time. Now I'm wondering about those indoor backgrounds of the chapter after this. It might be easier if I can just slap one solid color over it and not do much else :)

JANUARY 1, 2010
Happy New Year!! It's been THIRTY months, and I've still done something absolutely every day for my comics. Last year was really productive, as I slightly exceeded my goal of publishing a new webcomic every month :) I really wanted to increase the amount of content in my webcomic section, and that did the trick! This morning, I posted the final chapter of "Mark of the Jinn: Lost," bringing my first web mini-series to a close. It was so fun working with a lot of artists on a single project. In addition to posting the final MotJ chapter, I also uploaded the character profiles for "Mei" and the "Hydrones." When testing the pages, though, I found that the Hydrone page didn't contain any information. I know I wrote a detailed chunk of info about these fish-men, but I must not have saved it. Bummer! I wrote it again today, as I remember the main points from last time. I spent the rest of the evening adding digital colors to the background of page thirty one (Shadowlord webseries). It took some time to learn how to deal with things differently since this art is all blended pencil. It's trickier to highlight areas with graded shading like that, as opposed to simple black & white line art. I got the hang of it, though. One panel took up a lot more time than any other, and that was panel 3, which shows a fish just below the surface of the water. There was a lot of trial & error to give it the right look, and I digitally airbrushed highlights and shadows to create a ripple effect. There are no other shots in this chapter that will need this :)

This website as well as all characters and comics listed therein, copyright 2010 Jay W. Davis / One Shot Productions.